Clay, Red Devils coming in to face Fitzgerald

By Steve Carter/Sports Editor

September 12, 2007 09:59 pm

— TIFTON — After enjoying a week off to work on fundamentals, the Fitzgerald Purple Hurricanes will come back onto the football field at home tomorrow night.
Fitzgerald will be playing host to the Randolph-Clay Red Devils in a Region 1-AA contest.
Coach Richard Lawson’s Red Devils were also off last week.
In their respective season openers, Randolph-Clay garnered a 43-0 win over Stewart-Quitman, while Fitzgerald got an emotional 16-0 victory over rival Irwin County.
Even though the game with Irwin saw Fitzgerald outgain the Indians in total yardage by a 309-42 margin, head coach Robby Pruitt was not satisfied with his team’s performance.
“We looked so bad, that we have been working on a lot of basic stuff (during the team’s off week),” said Pruitt. “We still have a long way to go, especially with the young guys we have on offense.”
The Fitzgerald head coach said his team is starting four sophomores and one freshman on offense.
Junior Jemea Thomas did come up big against Irwin as he had four carries for 111 yards. Senior Larry King also added 42 yards on nine carries.
Brad Taylor was 1 for 5 passing in the game with the one completion being a 19-yard scoring pass to R.J. Davis.
While the Hurricanes did put up 309 yards of total offense in the game with Irwin, most of it came in the first half.
“We had some yards, but we had a lot more in the first half,” Pruitt said.
The Hurricanes will have to work hard to match the yardage of Randolph-Clay senior tailback Chris Clay.
Clay has been an all-state performer for three years and is back to lead the Red Devils in 2007.
“He is a talent. He is a lot of their offense,” said Pruitt.
The Fitzgerald head coach said the Devils try to use Clay as much as possible as Randolph-Clay runs out of the I-formation, as well as a lot of single back sets.
With it being a 1-AA matchup, Pruitt and his team want a good performance against Randolph-Clay.
“It is always good to start with a win in the region,” said Pruitt. “We have our tough teams at the end of the year, but Randolph-Clay is as talented as anyone we will play this year.”
Game time is 7:30 p.m.